A Small Trip to a Large Mountain (among other places)

Just when you thought I'd fallen off the face of the blogging world... I'm baaaack!

It's been almost two weeks now since I finished my time in Peru, and I'm just starting to emerge from the 2 months' worth of unanswered emails, appointments, and sleep-catching-up that have kept me busy at home. But just because I'm not in the Southern Hemisphere doesn't mean my blog can die... because I have yet to write about

this place.

Well, I've spoiled the surprise now, haven't I? Now you have no incentive to read this blog post. But, on the off-chance that this has piqued your interest and you'd like to see more pretty pictures, I will continue cuenta-ing my cuento until the end of the journey.

When I last wrote, it was my second night in the city of Cusco. Even though the city isn't that far from Ayacucho, we had to take a plane to Lima and spent a day there before heading out to Cusco. It was such a nice feeling to arrive in Lima and know my way around... as grey and gloomy as the city may be at times, walking down those streets felt like being home. We spent the day recovering from our early morning flight, and at night, visited the Parque de las Aguas, which is better described with pictures rather than words.

Pretty, no? It was a lot of fun, and though my camera may be a little worse for wear as a result of this soggy adventure, I'm really glad we went.

The next morning, we flew to Cusco (early again... you're only allowed to fly over the Andes at certain times, because of air pockets) and we started our totally non-academic week of sightseeing! The city of Cusco, or Cuzco, or Qosqo, as it is variably (and arbitrarily) spelled, has several defining characteristics:
1) It is located at 11,200 feet, which is more than twice the height of Denver CO.
2) It used to be the capitol of the Inca empire, and many buildings still have their original Incan walls. The design of these structures is earthquake-resistant, despite the fact that they use no mortar - the stones are simply carved with extreme precision.
3) The Cusqueñan flag is also borrowed from the Incas, who deified the rainbow. Therefore Cusco will forever be in my mind "the city where it's always Gay Pride Day".

4) According to the Official 2012 M. Lowey Census, there are more tourists in Cusco than Peruvians. Of course, that's not actually true, but WOW - I was astounded at the number of foreigners, especially after spending 3 weeks in isolated Ayacucho. 

Being suddenly dropped into this international city, where everyone addressed me in English and the nearest restaurant was Rosy O'Grady's Irish Pub, gave me a bit of a culture shock. As we visited different sites, I found myself struggling to make the transition from student/resident to pure "tourist". As a city, Cusco has a similar quality to one I remember from my high school trip to Barcelona - compared to smaller, less metropolitan areas, it felt a little false and empty, with even its most beautiful sites tarnished by commercialism and the tourism industry. I certainly don't blame the people of Cusco for capitalizing on their city's history, but seeing all of the frivolities set up for tourists made the poverty in the surrounding hills that much more disturbing.

Despite my mixed feelings on the city itself, I did enjoy our excursions to the various ruins and villages surrounding the town.
My personal favorite was Moray, a Incan site where agriculturists experimented with growing plants of different climates. The way the terraces structured, it is significantly warmer at the bottom than the top, and each level uses different soil to better promote the growth of each plant. I tell you, man, those Incas were smart.

After 2 days in Cusco we drove several hours to Aguas Calientes, the small town where Machu Picchu is located. We quickly checked into our beautiful hotel and, after days of anticipation, took an incredibly interesting (read: terrifying) 20 minute bus ride up to

this place.

See, I did it again. Got over-excited and ruined the surprise. Well, anyway - after this harrowing bus experience, we arrived at Machu Picchu, Sacred City of the Incas. And oh my goodness, turning the corner and seeing that city is everything it's cracked up to be and more. It is immense, it is silent, and it is so, so beautiful. I think I'll do an official Cuento later about everything I learned, but here are some key points:

• Machu Picchu (pronounced "mah-chew PEEK-chew" for the record... that's why there are 2 c's) was built around 1400 a.d. for the emperor Pachacuti. There were approximately 400 members of Incan elite living there, and there are over 700 terraces for farming. The current population consists of 3 adorable llamas.
• The word Inca itself translates to "teacher" or "civilizer". These people believed themselves to be a blessed race ordained to share their wisdom with other indigenous groups. Hence, the Inca Empire, or Tawantinsuyo, which stretched from Ecuador all the way through Chile.



Our guide Valentín teaching us the basics of Incan Architecture




Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain in front of the city, and means "Old Mountain". The big mountain in my pictures is the ying to Machu Picchu's yang - it's Huayna Picchu, "New Mountain". The city itself was named Haton Qollana Yachawasi, which roughly translated means "Place of Great Knowledge". Pretty, but a bit of a mouthful, right? We'll stick with Machu Picchu.

After spending Wednesday afternoon exploring the site (and befriending the staff of our hotel), we went back on Thursday to get a different view of the Incan city - this time, from the top of Huayna Picchu! The group, along with our wonderful guide Valentín, did a two-hour "hike" up the mountain... really more like two hours on the highest setting of Stairmaster. But when we got to the top, we were rewarded with the sight of hundreds of butterflies (yes, butterflies) at the top of the mountain, as well as another one of the breathtaking views with which the Andes have completely stolen my heart. Even if you're surrounded by other people, these mountains create a sense of peaceful solitude, of being dwarfed by the enormous masses that surround you, yet also feeling the solidness of your own presence in this beautiful, infinite space of mountain and sky. It's really quite a remarkable place.

At the top of Huayna Picchu. Machu Picchu is that little brown part 

The end of our hike meant the end of our time at Machu Picchu, and an hour later our somewhat sweaty group boarded the train and headed back to Cusco. The next morning we flew to Lima, where we had one more night before going home. My friends Kerry and Annie and I went back to the Puente de Suspiros, the Bridge of Sighs, where we got to see the sun set over the Pacific Ocean (a rare sight during the cloudy Limeño winter!) and got our photos taken by a modeling agency who were shooting promo materials and asked us to pose with their models (no joke).

My last Limeño sunset

Then, at 10:47pm on Saturday the 18th, I boarded my plane to Newark, New Jersey, and 12 hours later was back in my house, eating a good old American sandwich with my parents. It's definitely good to be home, and to have time to reflect on all of the amazing things that have happened over the past two months. Now that I've finally gotten back to my blog, there will be two more entries - the Food Blog (which I've been gearing up for since I first arrived in Lima) and the Picture Blog, so that I can share some of my favorite moments from the trip.

Muchas gracias for reading this long entry... that is, if you didn't just look at the picture of Machu Picchu and go back to surfing Pintrest. Which is fine too, of course. Anyway, hope everyone's having a magnificent end-of-summer, hasta pronto!